Later Mughals v1.c9.s18.27

v1.c9.s18.27

By this time the investment had advanced a musket-shot nearer to the walls and it was resolved to surround the fort with a field-work. A thousand axemen and a thousand carpenters were employed in cutting trees, two thousand carts and two thousand camels carried wood and earth to the spot. When the circle round the fort had been completed, mounds of earth were raised on the trunks of the trees, from distance to distance, and at the foot of the stockade, a deep and wide ditch was made. In spite of this the Sikhs continued their defence without any relaxation of effort. Nor were the besiegers idle. They drove subterranean passages towards each corner of the fort. Before Abdus-samad Khan's approach had reached the main gate, Qamr-ud-din Khan succeeded in capturing the ditch and a bastion, from which the artillery and musketry fire of the garrison had done great execution. Zakariya Khan obtained possession of a second gate, the one chiefly used by the garrison. Other commanders also advanced their works, and on all sides the Sikhs were much hampered. Their provisions had now come to an end, not a grain being left in their store-houses.†